O’Keeffe claimed that, at most, ‘‘two people caught a week fall into the 50–80mg bracket and in some years it has been one every two months” before adding that there “has only been one arrest to date in 2017”.

He stressed: “I do not condone drink driving in any way, but the Minister and his department are sexing up the figures to make this look like a legitimate response to road safety.”

The Road Safety Authority has said that six per cent of drink-drivers culpable in fatal crashes between 2008 and 2012 were in the 50-80mgs range.

Minister Ross said these figures made it “absolutely incontrovertible that the 50-80mgs grouping is a very dangerous area. Anybody who denies that is just speaking from pure ignorance”.